Observation and location are two aspects of material sample analysis. For observation alone, the geometric attributes of the sample are recorded, e.g., as a photograph or photomicrograph, to allow the useful derivation of information from the observed sample. A difficulty arises in defining locations of features of interest upon or within the sample, which is necessary to record their attributes. In addition, it may be necessary to objectively (numerically) describe changes to the sample if it has been somehow altered, intentionally (e.g., as in experimentation) or unintentionally (e.g., as a result of aging).
Various instruments may be used for processing and analyzing samples, such as tissues of organisms or other subjects of interest, for various purposes. For example, in one application, it may be desired to examine and identify objects of interest in the samples themselves, and thereafter locate the objects of interest perhaps using a different instrument than that originally used to identify and locate the objects of interest. A common problem in manual and automated microscopy is how to determine sample location and orientation while working across multiple magnifications. In addition, samples may be deformed, damaged, altered or changed during processing or analysis of the samples which may increase the difficulty of finding objects of interest within the samples.
At least some aspects of the disclosure are directed towards methods and apparatus for processing and analyzing samples including identifying and locating targets of interest within the samples. Some aspects of this disclosure describe methods for marking samples or sample substrates, which may be of arbitrary size, for the purpose of encoding location and/or determining the degree of deformation within a sample or substrate of interest. In addition, some example marking systems discussed herein have the attributes of being machine or human readable, arbitrarily scaled, usable to locate recorded positions even if the sample or substrate are disassembled, usable to quantify deformation and/or useable to reassemble the marked sample after either deformation or disassembly. Other aspects and embodiments of the disclosure are described below.